Timeless Humor

There is almost nothing timeless about filmed humor. Slapstick kind of sticks.

In my lifetime, spanning just a few decades, humor for mass consumption has changed so much. For better or for worse? I don’t know. I particularly liked the smart, verbal comedy of Annie Hall. Now, the shenanigans just seem like behavior, not humor.

Attitudes do not hold. Jokes often mock the current vanities of the era. Once the era passes, the particular humor of that age loses its leveling punch and is no longer needed. So, when reading or watching this humor, your mind reacts more to the era than to the comment on the era. This audience perspective saps the funny.

It’s really too bad.

I have a small theory that farce is timeless. But farce is often poorly done. And if farce is filmed, it suffers the same fate as all other comedy. Unless it is extraordinarily crisp. I believe the humor of The Marx Brothers’ A Night at the Opera holds exceptionally well, even if some of the bits go on too long. The fast tempo chaos outshines the period. This keeps your attention on the pacing, the relationships and the gags and the era becomes just the era.

Written, unfilmed farce has the best chance of survival since it can be produced to be contemporary (as long as the language is not too era-bound). My suggestion, if one wants one’s comedy to last through the ages, is to write a farcical play that relates to relationships and nature. It should hold up for future productions.